Senator Paul urges ROTA Casino Commission to organize, flags stalled waterline, road and equipment issues
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Summary
During the March 4 delegation session, Senator Paul pressed the delegation and the ROTA Casino Commission to hire leadership and stand up a website to preserve license-fee revenue, and he urged action on a closed Beach Road, a stalled Doogie/Nougie waterline and unused rock-crusher equipment.
Senator Paul used the delegation’s miscellaneous-business time on March 4 to press several local priorities, urging faster action from the ROTA Casino Commission and municipal departments on long-delayed projects.
“Based on that meeting, it seems like, the Rota Casino Commission needs to hire immediately, even on a part time basis, a CEO in order for them to move forward,” Senator Paul said, warning that without an operational commission and website the jurisdiction risks exhausting license-fee funds paid by applicants. He told colleagues the commission needs contract or part-time expertise to regulate online gaming operators and to publish required information online.
Senator Paul also raised infrastructure concerns: he called for reopening the Beach Road near the swimming hole, which he said has been closed for six or seven years; pressed for progress on the Doogie/Nougie waterline project, which he said has stalled despite appropriations; and asked for public accounting of a rock crusher procured for more than $300,000 that he said has sat unused, limiting local access to aggregate and slowing related construction work.
Chairman Molineux Donald and Senator Calvo said they had met with the mayor, who reported that federally protected slugs were found along an alternate route to the swimming hole, complicating reopening plans, and that the NEPA process for the waterline remains unresolved. The chairman said the delegation would not act on legislation related to the Casino Commission until it receives updates and plans from the commission.
Senator Paul also requested the delegation obtain a status report on a terminated Rotor Resort contract and on a long-running Federal Highway project that members described as ongoing for nine years with intermittent work stoppages.
What’s next: the delegation asked the mayor and agencies for updates before pursuing new legislation related to casino governance and said it will monitor implementation of the appropriations passed earlier in the session.